This invention relates to assortment decisions.
One of the decisions that face retailers and suppliers is the choice of assortments of retail items to be bought or distributed. The assortment may represent, for example, the number of each size of an item of apparel (a man's dress shirt), an accessory (a belt), home furnishings (a flannel sheet), or any other type of merchandise that is bought and sold by size. If the wrong assortments are bought or distributed, the resulting under- and over stocking by size may lead to lost profit because of missed sales and excessive markdowns, customer dissatisfaction due to unavailable sizes, and excessive operational costs due to expedited shipping or store-to-store transfers.